Attitudes toward communication and the assessment of rhetorical sensitivity

This series of studies operationalized the concept of rhetorical sensitivity first discussed by Hart and Burks in 1972. A measuring instrument (RHETSEN) was developed and the attitudes‐toward‐communication held by several thousand individuals were thereby assessed. RHETSEN was found to have sufficient reliability and validity. When a national sample of college students responded to RHETSEN, it appeared that their feelings about encoding messages were related to their various sociocultural backgrounds. When a large group of adult nurses took the test, their responses seemed associated with their particular professional duties and life experiences.